If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Re: Veils / Black Mesh

Thanks for the anti fogging soap tip, I will have to give that a try. My coworker loved it too.

@challenger-

I watched the video and your setup looked awesome. But being that I'm so new to this, what was the need for the machine? Are you washing the comb? Treating it? Prepping it for long term storage?

Oh and don't worry about education, my coworker that is a mechanical engineer talked with me about how his education was focus on metals while 95% of what we do deals with plastics so he said he uses a small portion of his college education. A lot of creating products or machine like you've done is all about trial and error and then figuring out how to improve it. I love your approach though.

Oh and it was 99 here today, I'll take the cold any day (from New Hampshire).

@gino45-

Yeah the grass might be greener. I definitely think it would be incredibly tough / lots of hard work to make a living in agriculture. The big pit fall to what I do is that I've worked on a number of products the last few years a if I'm lucky 1 or 2 will become real products, due to a variety of reasons. I still get paid, but the personal satisfaction in knowing my work and effort paid off isn't there.

The intelligence comments are interesting. It's hard to find a person that has the ability to learn from books and the hands on approach. But I'm a fan of being hands on since you get a feel from the true application. But since I'm new to beekeeping I can say I've had my head in a book the past few months quite a bit.

@cajunbee-

If you could post a picture, that would be awesome to see the setup you use.

Re: Veils / Black Mesh

I don't like the plastic veil on my Ultrabreeze jacket, or the plastic veil on my pigeon mountain full suit - they are not durable and tear easily. On the days I have to dig deep I wear the pigeon mountain full suit and an old wire mesh veil, plastic veil, and sweatband. Lighter days I just wear a veil, and skip both suits in favor of t-shirt and pants.

Re: Veils / Black Mesh

You may think I am crazy but I'm even more lazy. If I am doing some quick hive work & it is very hot I wear a pair of shorts & sneakers. I smoke & wait a few minutes and a little more smoke after lifting the cover. I hate having to go through 5 shirts a day and veils are the first layer of protection I'll use. Even the veil is left off if I feel the bees are not angry. I must say I am very slow moving when I am so lightly dressed and if a few bees bang into me I'll put a veil & perhaps a shirt on. Normally I feel the bees go first & foremost for the ears, eyes & nose with all other body parts getting stung when a hive/apiary is on full blown stung the world alert.
I'm not proud to say I've gotten stung on the eyelid twice this year, the nose more than that & the ears even more. All these locations can be painful & if I would just open the back of my truck & put the veil on they would ha e been avoided so I deserve the stings I get and normally wear a veil for the next couple of inspections. Then I'm back to being lazy & enjoying the clear vision.
I use the frame filler for feeding hives 2:1 sugar syrup. Look at some past threads. I found filled frames are, by far IMOHO , the best way to fees bees. Once one has a filling machine the frames are filled 10 per minute with almost no waste & no more fiddling & keeping up with the other forms of feeding equipment.

Re: Veils / Black Mesh

Couple of things that just come to mind is that I don't like the plastic mesh on my suit. It always tears or gets holes of some sort. Usually happens when I try to wash it. I've patched it with black window screen that seems to match the hole size perfectly, but hate looking around patches. Anyway, I was thinking I would like a clear, strong mesh and all I can figure is something like a fishing line mesh. It would be very strong and rarely get torn. Also, while I'm rambling here; if you've developed medical equipment, you may have seem the cool suits the surgeons wear. Flexible water lines sewn into a vest that are connected to a cooler full of ice water with a small pump pushing cold water to and from the vest like a radiator. I would love to try one in the bee yard just to see if it would work. Only the connector tubes would have to be pretty long and restrict how far you could go w/o moving the cooler. been trying to come up with a version that would suit me. As of yet nothing built.

Re: Veils / Black Mesh

My old eyes cannot see eggs or very young larva through a veil. However, the veil I have presently, 99 percent of the time does not restrict my vision, at all. That is because I leave it hanging on a tree branch nearby and do not wear it. I find that my vision is much better and I do not overheat as quickly.

Re: Veils / Black Mesh

I might have missed the e-mail alert I received for all these responses, love that everyone is still commenting!

@challenger-

Thanks for outlining the main areas you get stung, that's actually some pretty important information. Really helps understand the important areas for protection. When I first got my two packages this year, I was able to go into the hive for the first month without a veil or anything. Then after a while I took a bee sting to the nose and then one to the lip. My nose didn't swell but my lip sure did. After that, I've been wearing a veil every time since it's a little hard for me to be at work with a swollen face if I'm interacting with clients.

@NCbeek-

I can't say I've seen a set up like that for surgeons, but I'd love to see that! It sounds like its similar to setups I've seen for football players where they have lines routed through their shoulder pads to run cold water through when they sit on the bench.

@Joseph Clemens-

I'd love to find a solution that people would wear but have the ability for clear vision and great ventilation.

@Cajun bee-

Pictures are always great!! If you've got em I'd love to see em.

Thanks all!

I need to start sketching out my ideas and posting the sketches on here for everyone to see / comment on. Tonight I ended up 3D modeling a deep langstroth frame (just so I can have a digital version) and then some variations I'd like to do to the frame to test some ideas I've got for frames.

Re: Veils / Black Mesh

I think the wire mesh is easier to see through but the strings are always coming untied. This is a problem for me. Many times I wear a sweatshirt with a hood over white coveralls. The sweatshirt keeps the bees from gaining access, but like I said the strings are always coming undone.

Re: Veils / Black Mesh

@linn-

You bring up a great point that we might not have gone into a lot of detail so far. Keeping the veil bee free where it meets your shoulders / chest / neck / back.

The other day I was quickly inspecting my two nucs and had my sisters dog by my side. She likes to run after people passing down the road and when she took a step I quickly moved my head to see her and noticed that the "stretchy cord" on the bottom of the veil does not exactly maintain a nice seal at the opening.

Another beesource member posted a link to a video of a guy that was stung 150 times and in the video he mentions the opening in the veil that the bees got through in order to sting him.

If the veil was a veil / shirt (or jacket) combination how does that make every one here feel? Concerns about an increased cost or it being a "system"?